It
was quite the weekend forGolden
Boy Promotions.Amir Khanretained his WBA junior welterweight title inManchester, Englandwith a six-roundtechnical
decisionoverPaul
McCloskey.
However, the big bounty the promoter bagged was Victor Ortiz capturing the WBC
welterweight title by defeatingAndre Bertoin an entertaining 12-round affair at
Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, CT.

"It's a big win for us," stated Richard
Schaefer, Golden Boy's CEO, back at his offices in Los Angeles after three
weeks on the road.

When asked what was next for the oft-maligned
Ortiz, who gained a huge measure of redemptionon Saturday night, Schaefer told Maxboxingon Monday afternoon, "Look, in a perfect world, if it would be up to
me, I would love to see if we can get a fight done with him andFloyd Mayweather."
Schaefer insisted that Mayweather was not at the fights this past weekend for
that specific reason. Getting back to Ortiz and his possible future endeavors,
Schaefer said, "I like, as well, a rematch [withBerto] would be a helluva fight. It doesn't get much better
than that. I think Manny Steward called it the best he's seen since [Sugar Ray]
Leonard-[Thomas] Hearns. There are a lot of opportunities and possibilities.
The fact is, the list is endless. There's so many names."

For a company looking to restock its cupboard,
this was a significant victory and Golden Boy has a chance to add to its
largess this upcoming weekend at the Nokia Theater.

"I'm focusing on the bantamweights and our
other young gun-Abner
Mares, who I think is going to bring
another title to Golden Boy," said Schaefer. Mares faces IBF bantamweight
titlistJoseph Agbekoin the
finals of Showtime's 118-pound tournament. "So all these young guys, we
put a lot of effort in and it's starting to pay off. They're all delivering and
it's their time and it's our time. So with Victor, I'm going to be, next week,
starting to have some more concrete conversations with HBO and see what's out
there. I know it's going to be something exciting."

Looking ahead to the summer, it looks as though
Golden Boy will be staging another pay-per-view cardon July 30th, according to Schaefer. "That's something which
I'm going to be working on, as well," he said. "Erik Morales is going
to be coming this week to Los Angeles; he's going to be at the fights on
Saturday night and we'll be sitting down with him to see what's next for him.
But I'm pretty confident, as a matter of fact, that he's going to be on that
card."

That card, which will most likely land either in
Los Angeles or Las Vegas, could feature the fourth chapter of one of the most
heated rivalries this sport has ever seen.

"I read in the Mexican press thatMarco Antonio Barrerais
interested in a fight with Morales. So we might look at that," said
Schaefer, who added that another possibility is a Morales rematch withMarcos Maidana.

Schaefer says that he is moving ahead with making
aJuly 23rdbout
between Khan and Tim Bradley. Golden Boy just resigned Khan to a promotional
pact, believed to be a four-fight agreement. One of the issues they have to
deal with now is the fractured relationship withSky Sports,which abruptly pulled the plug as the pay-per-view
distributor for last weekend’s bout, leaving Khan with a significant financial
loss and forcing him to go with Primetime, a much smaller platform. There is
talk that this may lead to Khan leaving the UK for good.

"They say, 'Never say never,' so I don't
know," said Schaefer, when asked if this rift with Sky Sports was irreparable.
"It certainly was a blow and I have to tell you; I don't understand why
Sky took that position because the fact is, you have a young fighter with Amir,
who legitimately had 17,500 or 18,000 people at the M.E.N. Arena on night
when MAN City and Manchester United had a soccer game and the guy still drew
and sold out the M.E.N Arena. He's obviously a star; he's obviously being
embraced there and it's not as if England has so many pay-per-view stars."

Sources indicate that McCloskey brought over a
sizable contingent of fans, between 5-7,000, who came out for “Dudey” from
Ireland. Regardless, the point is that a Khan-McCloskey fight probably couldn't
fill a phone booth in the States. In England, it was a major event, any way you
look at it.

Schaefer adds, "And for Sky to walk away from
the pay-per-view becauseHasim
Rahmanpulled out of fightingTyson Fury, I really have to scratch my head. I talked to the Sky
people; I know them quite well and honestly, I have a good relationship with
them, respect them and I couldn't believe it. I could not believe that one of
the emerging stars- not just in England but in the sport, period- that they
would pull the pay-per-view because of the Hasim Rahman-Tyson Fury fight. Who
the hell would have bought the pay-per-view because of that fight? That's what
I told them. Rahman may have been a great champion at one point but at this
point, who the hell cares?"

Golden Boy has a clear, detailed plan for “King”
Khan.

"Assuming [Khan] wins against Tim Bradley, we
would have him back in the fall,” Schaefer detailed. “He's going to have
Ramadan in August, then back in like November, December, fighting potentially aZab Judahto unify
all the belts to become the undisputed junior welterweight champion and then once
he cleans up the 140-pound weight class, assuming he wins that fight, then move
up to 147 sometime in the spring of next year, potentially from England against
somebody like Kell Brook, which is the highest-rated welterweight in Europe. So
do that and after that, you go for the pound-for-pound crown, which isFloyd Mayweather.

"So this is like a dream set up, like a
blueprint. So why the hell would Sky walk away from a guy who has these big
fights lined up? I just don't get it."

It's funny but Dan Rafael ofESPN.comis
getting a lot of derision for scoring the Ortiz-Berto fight in favor of Berto
by a score of 113-112. Now, I can't say I agree with this (watching this from “couchside,”
I had “Vicious” winning this fight going away) but Rafael was not the only one
who had Berto winning this fight.Ron Borges, Michael Marley and Peter Mooney (who covered this bout
for our website) all had Berto on top. For whatever it's worth, two of the
official ringside judges had that fight awfully close. Julie Lederman scored it
114-111 for Ortiz and Glen Feldman had it 114-112 for the new champion, which
means that if you take away the knockdowns, they basically had this fight even,
for the most part.

It just goes to show you, watching and
judging a fight from ringside can be a completely different perspective than
watching it on television (although it has to be noted that theHBOcrew, which sits right on the ring apron, had Ortiz by a
wide margin).

I still remember the wide discrepancy in opinion between
the HBO crew, the ringside media and the television audience over the rematch
betweenShane MosleyandOscar De La Hoyain 2003.
While those watching on pay-per-view were screaming bloody murder- perhaps
influenced by the HBO crew (which had their Golden pom-poms out that night)-
the majority of the ringside press had Mosley winning and didn't know what the
fuss was all about.

Hey, sometimes you just see a different fight.

Other times, you just disagree on what you
witnessed.

Admittedly, once in awhile, you just have a bad
night at the office.

PLAYOFF FLURRIES

Schaefer says that the Khan-Bradley fight could
take place in Las Vegas or at a venue in Southern California like the Honda
Center in Anaheim or the LA Sports Arena (which, decades ago, was a
regular host to championship fights)...As it relates to Ortiz's next foe,
Selcuk Aydin has been the WBC welterweight mandatory since about the time
Barack Obama was still a senator from Illinois. He may have a case for facing
him next. It's not a bad fight at all, style-wise. Aydin isn't hard to find and
is aggressive...Adrian Broner-Jason Litzau is the leading contender to lead off
theJune 18thHBO
broadcast before Saul “Canelo” Alvareztakes on
Ryan Rhodes. OK, not sure why “Bore-ner” is leading off a show from
Guadalajara, Mexico but if he can't look any more exciting than he did versus
Daniel Ponce de Leon against Litzau, he's hopeless...Did my man Manny Steward
really say that Berto-Ortiz was the best fight he's seen since Leonard-Hearns?
Wasn't he on the call for HBO for Gatti-Ward I?...Based on all the injuries the
Houston Rockets suffered, I thinkRick Adelmanactually did
an admirable job in coaching them...With the return of Harrison Barnes, isn't
UNC the prohibitive favorite to win it all next year in college hoops?...From
what took place at the Miami spring game, it's clear that the Hurricanes need
to run a version of the “Wildcat” with Lamar Miller, Storm Johnson and Mike
James all playing at the same time. That QB situation is a Category 5 disaster,
right now....